Doors for containers and the like

ABSTRACT

Relative movement in a vertical direction between the free edges of two hinged doors of a freight container is prevented, when the doors are in the closed position, by reinforcing members secured to the doors adjacent to their free edges, one reinforcing member fitting within the other which is of channel section and cooperating abutments being located in the members to prevent relative longitudinal movement between them.

United States Patent [191 Lycett et al.

' [111 3,891,112 June 24, 1975 DOORS FOR CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE [75] Inventors: Peter Lycett; Kenneth William Kempson, both of Staffordshire, England [73] Assignee: The Bloxwich Lock and Stamping Company Limited, Staffordshire, England Oct. 3, 1972 (Under Rule 47) [21] Appl. No.: 294,541

[22] Filed:

[52] US. Cl. 220/15; 49/367; 220/29;

220/71; 292/218; 292/DIG. 32 [51] Int. Cl B65j l/02; B65d 7/48; E056 7/00 [58] Field of Search 220/15, 29, 71;

292/DIG. 32, 218, 341.17, 341.12, 340, 256, 300; 49/367-369, 394, 395, 371, 396; 312/100, '291, 138, 324

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1886 Baycey 49/369 1,713,898 5/1929 Gilpin 49/396 1,746,749 2/1930 Viberg 2,042,441 5/1936 Wi1loughby..

2,158,336 5/1939 Madland 2 ,200,277 5/1940 Howie 3,340,649 9/ 1967 Erlandsen 3,684,122 8/1972 Bono'mi..

3,747,796 7/1973 Kneier et al.

3,784,243 l/l974 Pastua, Jr. 220/1 5 Primary Examiner-William 1. Price Assistant ExaminerAl1an N. Shoap Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Scrivener Parker Scrivener and Clarke ABSTRACT Relative movement in a vertical direction between the free edges of two hinged doors of a freight container is prevented, when the doors are in the closed position, by reinforcing members secured to the doors adjacent to their free edges, one reinforcing member fitting within the other which is'of channel section and cooperating abutments being located in the members to prevent relative longitudinal movement between them.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUN 24 1915 a SHEET 7 m# g 0 o o d a 8 39 m 2.1 A Q o o o 6 M A 5 1 DOORS FOR CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE This invention relates primarily to arrangements'for securing the doors of containers for the transport of goods by road. rail and sea. although it may be applied also to doors for other purposes, such as those on bodies of goods vehicles.

Usually a container has two doors hinged to the sides of the container with their edges meeting on the centreline, the doors when closed forming an end wall of the container. Each door is held closed by a fastening mechanism comprising cams engaging keepers at the top and bottom of the door frame, the cams being mounted on opposite ends of a common vertically extending actuating bar mounted in bearings secured to the face of the door. There may be one set or two sets of such fastening mechanism on each door. It is known to stiffen the doors, to resist internal pressure from the goods inside, by the provision of vertically extending top-hat section reinforcing bars secured to the outside faces of the doors. In one known proposal the actuating bars of the fastening mechanism lie within such reinforcing sections.

Racking loads on the doors due to distortion of the container by over-loading or bad handling are generally taken by arranging for the cams to engage their keepers in a way that prevents relative vertical movement and- /or by the provision of tongues extending across from one door to engage between vertically spaced lugs on the face of the other door, or by the provision of plates on one door, provided with apertures that engage over lugs on the other door and on the frame. It is also known for the reinforcing sections on the faces of the doors'to extend beyond the top and bottom edges of the door and engage over. lugs or bosses on the frame, to locate each door independently with respect to the frame against racking loads.

The aim of the present invention is to provide an improved form of mutual location between the doors to oppose racking. According to the invention one of the doors has along its free edge a reinforcing member of channel section, with its hollow side facing inwards, which engages over a reinforcing member provided on the free edge of the other door, there being lugs, blocks, abutments or the like associated with the two members to prevent relative longitudinal movement between the members when the doors are in their closed positions.

In this way the .functions of reinforcement and of interconnecting the doors to oppose racking are combined. Preferably the reinforcing member on the other door is also of channel section. Inone preferred construction each member is in the form of a top-hat sec tion with one flange missing. The channel portion of the first-mentioned member is of internal dimensions such that the other member nests nicely into it, although the lateral width of the other member is preferably appreciably less than that of the inside of the firstmentioned member.

To prevent relative longitudinal movement the firstmentioned member, i.e., the outer one, may have horizontal plates closing its top and bottom ends to form a hollow box which receives the other member, and the ends of this other member engage against or are closely adjacent to the inner faces of the plates.

According to a further feature of the invention the two reinforcing members also provide the mounting means for the fastening mechanism. In a preferred arrangement the operating bars are carried in spaced bearings formed by gusset plates welded at vertically spaced intervals in the corners formed between the outsides-of the sidefaces of the top-hat sections and the adjacent faces of the flanges by which those sections are secured to the face of the respective door. the gussetplates in each case being on that side of the top-hat section which is furthest from the free edge of the door.

The presence of the gusset plates provides still further anti-racking location between the channel section members in that the free edge of the outer member has to be notched at intervals to provide clearance for the gusset plates which are welded to the other member and the co-operation of these notches and gusset plates prevents relative vertical movement.

One example of our invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of one end of a freight container adapted to be closed by two co-operating doors which are shown in the closed position,

FIG. 2 is an elevation of the adjacent edges of the doors on a larger scale,

' FIG. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 33 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary horizontal section on the line 4 4 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 5 is a plan of an end closure plate for one of the reinforcing members.

As shown in the drawings an end of a freight container for the transport of goods is closed by two cooperating doors 1, 2 each of a width substantially equal to one half of the width of the container. Each door is hingedly connected to a side of the container by hinges 3 secured to the door by bolts 4. The usual rubber sealing strips 5 are provided around the doors.

The doors are fastened in the closed position by vertical operating bars 6 mounted adjacent to the inner edges of the doors for angular movement about their axes. The bars carry on their top and bottom ends cams 7 cooperating with keepers 8 mounted on the top and bottom of thecontainer. The cams are engaged with and disengaged from the keepers by partial rotation of an operating bar effected by a handle 9 pivotally mounted in a lug 10 secured to the bar. In the closed position the handle is engaged with a keeper 1 1 and can be locked and sealed in that position.

The kind of fastening mechanism described above is well-known and is commonly used for the doors of freight containers. According to our invention there'is secured to the door 1 adjacent to its free edge a reinforcing member A comprising a part'12 of channel section, the hollow face of the channel being on the door side, and an extension 13 from one flange which is parallel to the web of the channel. The member in effect is of top-hat cross-section with one flange missing. The extension 13 lies against the face of the door to which it is secured by bolts 14.

A similar reinforcing member B is secured to the door 2 adjacent to its free edge and comprises a part 15 of channel section and an extension flange 16 which lies against and is secured to the door by bolts 17.

The width of the channel section part 15 of the reinforcing member B is such that when the door 1 has been closed and the door 2 is then closed the channel section part 15 fits over the channel section part 12 of tions into the angles between the extension flanges l3, 16 of the members and the adjacent flanges of the channel section parts l2, l5. Bearing openings 20, in which the operating bars are a working fit, are formed in the gusset plates and similar openings 21 are formed in the top and bottom closure plates 18 of the member B.

Slots 22 are cut in the free flange of the channel section part of the reinforcing member B to receive the gusset plates in the member A as shown more particularly in FIGS. 3 and 4. The engagements of the slotted flanges on the one member with the gusset plates 19 in the other provide co-operating abutments which effectively resist any relative longitudinal movement between the reinforcing member and hence between the inner edges of the doors when the doors are closed.

Axial movement of the tubular operating bars 6 in the reinforcing members is resisted by semi-circular collars 23 welded to the bars and co-operating with the gusset plates in the reinforcing members.

It will be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2 that the upper collar on each operating bar is located above a gusset plate and the lower collar is located below a gusset plate so as to resist axial movement of the operating bar in both directions.

Semi-circular collars are used to allow for the angular movement of the operating bars in the fastening and releasing of the fastening mechanism.

Normally the whole of the racking load on the doors is taken by the engagement of the slots in a flange of one reinforcing member with the gusset plates in the other members, but in the event of severe distortion of the container sufficient to bend the gusset plates the top and bottom closure plates on the member B will come into operation to resist further relative longitudinal movement between the reinforcing members.

In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings and described above the hinges and the reinforcing members are secured to the doors by bolts, but if the doors are made of steel plate these parts can be welded to the door.

We claim:

1. A freight container in which one end of the container is closed by two co-operating doors hinged at their vertical outer edges to sides of the container and the free edges of the doors are provided with first and second reinforcing members of channel cross-section of which one fits within the other in the closed position of the doors, wherein the said reinforcing members are separately formed members secured to the doors adjacent to their free edges and extending the full height of the doors, each reinforcing member comprising a portion of channel cross-section having a web and spaced parallel flanges and an attachment portion which extends laterally from one of said flanges parallel to said web and lies against and is secured to a door, and the first of said members is secured to one door adjacent to the free edge of said one door and the second of said members is secured to the other door in such a position that when the doors are closed the channel-section portion of said second member overlaps the adjacent edge of said one door to receive the channel-section portion of said first member, each of said reinforcing members incorporating abutment means, the abutment means of one reinforcing member being engageable with abutment means of the second reinforcing member to prevent relative vertical movement of the free edges of the doors when they are in closed position and the channel section portion of said first member is engaged within the channel-section portion of said second member.

2. A freight container as in claim 1 wherein said cooperating abutment means in the reinforcing members comprise vertically spaced gusset plates at right angles to the edges of the doors welded to said one member between the channel portion and the lateral extension, and complementarily spaced notches in the free flange of the channel portion of said other member, said gusset plates being received in said notches in the closed position of the doors.

3. A freight container as in claim 2 wherein vertically spaced gusset plates are welded to the other reinforcing member between the channel portions and said lateral extensions, the gusset plates on both of said members providing bearings for vertical operating bars of fastening mechanisms for the doors.

4. A freight container as in claim 3 wherein collars are fixed on said operating bars for engagement with said gusset plates to prevent axial movement of said bars relative to said reinforcing members.

5. A freight container as in claim 4 wherein said one member is of less vertical length than said other member and is confined in a vertical direction between end plates welded to the top and bottom of said one member, said one member being engageable with said end plates to further prevent relative vertical movement of the free edges of the doors when in closed position.- 

1. A freight container in which one end of the container is closed by two co-operating doors hinged at their vertical outer edges to sides of the container and the free edges of the doors are provided with first and second reinforcing members of channel cross-section of which one fits within the other in the closed position of the doors, wherein the said reinforcing members are separately formed members secured to the doors adjacent to their free edges and extending the full height of the doors, each reinforcing member comprising a portion of channel cross-section having a web and spaced parallel flanges and an attachment portion which extends laterally from one of said flanges parallel to said web and lies against and is secured to a door, and the first of said members is secured to one door adjacent to the free edge of said one door and the second of said members is secured to the other door in such a position that when the doors are closed the channel-section portion of said second member overlaps the adjacent edge of said one door to receive the channel-section portion of said first member, each of said reinforcing members incorporating abutment means, the abutment means of one reinforcing member being engageable with abutment means of the second reinforcing member to prevent relative vertical movement of the free edges of the doors when they are in closed position and the channel section portion Of said first member is engaged within the channel-section portion of said second member.
 2. A freight container as in claim 1 wherein said cooperating abutment means in the reinforcing members comprise vertically spaced gusset plates at right angles to the edges of the doors welded to said one member between the channel portion and the lateral extension, and complementarily spaced notches in the free flange of the channel portion of said other member, said gusset plates being received in said notches in the closed position of the doors.
 3. A freight container as in claim 2 wherein vertically spaced gusset plates are welded to the other reinforcing member between the channel portions and said lateral extensions, the gusset plates on both of said members providing bearings for vertical operating bars of fastening mechanisms for the doors.
 4. A freight container as in claim 3 wherein collars are fixed on said operating bars for engagement with said gusset plates to prevent axial movement of said bars relative to said reinforcing members.
 5. A freight container as in claim 4 wherein said one member is of less vertical length than said other member and is confined in a vertical direction between end plates welded to the top and bottom of said one member, said one member being engageable with said end plates to further prevent relative vertical movement of the free edges of the doors when in closed position. 